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proposal was approved of by the council。

     As long as the whole or the far greater part of the gold;

which the first adventurers imported into Europe; was got by so

very easy a method as the plundering of the defenceless natives;

it was not perhaps very difficult to pay even this heavy tax。 But

when the natives were once fairly stripped of all that they had;

which; in St。 Domingo; and in all the other countries discovered

by Columbus; was done completely in six or eight years; and when

in order to find more it had become necessary to dig for it in

the mines; there was no longer any possibility of paying this

tax。 The rigorous exaction of it; accordingly; first occasioned;

it is said; the total abandoning of the mines of St。 Domingo;

which have never been wrought since。 It was soon reduced

therefore to a third; then to a fifth; afterwards to a tenth; and

at last to a twentieth part of the gross produce of the gold

mines。 The tax upon silver continued for a long time to be a

fifth of the gross produce。 It was reduced to a tenth only in the

course of the present century。 But the first adventurers do not

appear to have been much interested about silver。 Nothing less

precious than gold seemed worthy of their attention。

     All the other enterprises of the Spaniards in the new world;

subsequent to those of Columbus; seem to have been prompted by

the same motive。 It was the sacred thirst of gold that carried

Oieda; Nicuessa; and Vasco Nugnes de Balboa; to the Isthmus of

Darien; that carried Cortez to Mexico; and Almagro and Pizzarro

to Chili and Peru。 When those adventurers arrived upon any

unknown coast; their first inquiry was always if there was any

gold to be found there; and according to the information which

they received concerning this particular; they determined either

to quit the country or to settle in it。

     Of all those expensive and uncertain projects; however;

which bring bankruptcy upon the greater part of the people who

engage in them; there is none perhaps more ruinous than the

search after new silver and gold mines。 It is perhaps the most

disadvantageous lottery in the world; or the one in which the

gain of those who draw the prizes bears the least proportion to

the loss of those who draw the blanks: for though the prizes are

few and the blanks many; the common price of a ticket is the

whole fortune of a very rich man。 Projects of mining; instead of

replacing the capital employed in them; together with the

ordinary profits of stock; commonly absorb both capital and

profit。 They are the projects; therefore; to which of all others

a prudent lawgiver; who desired to increase the capital of his

nation; would least choose to give any extraordinary

encouragement; or to turn towards them a greater share of that

capital than that would go to them of its own accord。 Such in

reality is the absurd confidence which almost all men have in

their own good fortune that; wherever there is the least

probability of success; too great a share of it is apt to go to

them of its own accord。

     But though the judgment of sober reason and experience

concerning such projects has always been extremely unfavourable;

that of human avidity has commonly been quite otherwise。 The same

passion which has suggested to so many people the absurd idea of

the philosopher's stone; has suggested to others the equally

absurd one of immense rich mines of gold and silver。 They did not

consider that the value of those metals has; in all ages and

nations; arisen chiefly from their scarcity; and that their

scarcity has arisen from the very small quantities of them which

nature has anywhere deposited in one place; from the hard and

intractable substances with which she has almost everywhere

surrounded those small quantities; and consequently from the

labour and expense which are everywhere necessary in order to

penetrate to and get at them。 They flattered themselves that

veins of those metals might in many places be found as large and

as abundant as those which are commonly found of lead; or copper;

or tin; or iron。 The dream of Sir Walter Raleigh concerning the

golden city and country of Eldorado; may satisfy us that even

wise men are not always exempt from such strange delusions。 More

than a hundred years after the death of that great man; the

Jesuit Gumila was still convinced of the reality of that

wonderful country; and expressed with great warmth; and I dare to

say with great sincerity; how happy he should be to carry the

light of the gospel to a people who could so well reward the

pious labours of their missionary。

     In the countries first discovered by the Spaniards; no gold

or silver mines are at present known which are supposed to be

worth the working。 The quantities of those metals which the first

adventurers are said to have found there had probably been very

much magnified; as well as the fertility of the mines which were

wrought immediately after the first discovery。 What those

adventurers were reported to have found; however; was sufficient

to inflame the avidity of all their countrymen。 Every Spaniard

who sailed to America expected to find an Eldorado。 Fortune; too;

did upon this what she has done upon very few other occasions。

She realized in some measure the extravagant hopes of her

votaries; and in the discovery and conquest of Mexico and Peru

(of which the one happened about thirty; the other about forty

years after the first expedition of Columbus); she presented them

with something not very unlike that profusion of the precious

metals which they sought for。

     A project of commerce to the East Indies; therefore; gave

occasion to the first discovery of the West。 A project of

conquest gave occasion to all the establishments of the Spaniards

in those newly discovered countries。 The motive which excited

them to this conquest was a project of gold and silver mines; and

a course of accidents; which no human wisdom could foresee;

rendered this project much more successful than the undertakers

had any reasonable grounds for expecting。

     The first adventurers of all the other nations of Europe who

attempted to make settlements in America were animated by the

like chimerical views; but they were not equally successful。 It

was more than a hundred years after the first settlement of the

Brazils before any silver; gold; or diamond mines were discovered

there。 In the English; French; Dutch; and Danish colonies; none

have ever yet been discovered; at least none that are at present

supposed to be worth the working。 The first English settlers in

North America; however; offered a fifth of all the gold and

silver which should be found there to the king; as a motive for

granting them their patents。 In the patents to Sir Walter

Raleigh; to the London and Plymouth Companies; to the Council of

Plymouth; etc。; this fifth was accordingly reserved to the crown。

To the expectation of finding gold and silver mines; those first

settlers; too; joined that of discovering a northwest passage to

the East Indies。 They have hitherto been disappointed in both。

                            PART 2

             Causes of Prosperity of New Colonies 

     THE colony of a civilised nation which takes possession

either of a waste country; or of one so thinly inhabited that the

natives easily give place to the new settlers; advances more

rapidly to wealth and greatness than any other human society。

     The colonists carry out with them a knowledge of agriculture

and of other useful arts superior to what can grow up of its own

accord in the course of many centuries among savage and barbarous

nations。 They carry out with them; too; the habit of

subordination; some notion of the regular government which takes

place in their own country; of the system of laws which support

it; and of a regular administration of justice; and they

naturally establish something of the same kind in the new

settlement。 But among savage and barbarous nations; the natural

progress of law and government is still slower than the natural

progress of arts; after law and government have been go far

established as is necessary for their protection。 Every colonist

gets more land than he can possibly cultivate。 He has no rent;

and scarce any taxes to pay。 No landlord shares with him in its

produce; and the share of the sovereign is commonly but a trifle。

He has every motive to render as great as possible a produce;

which is thus to be almost entirely his own。 But his land is

commonly so extensive that; with all his own industry; and with

all the industry of other people whom he can get to employ; he

can seldom make it produce the tenth part of what it is capable

of producing。 He is eager; therefore; to collect labourers from

all quarters; and to reward them with the most liberal wages。 But

those liberal wages; joined to the plenty and cheapness of land;

soon make those labourers leave him; in order to become landlords

themselves; and to reward; with equal liberality; other

labourers; who soon leave them for the same reason that t

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